Privacy

Introduction

WWF-Canada is committed to protecting the privacy of our donors, supporters and others with whom we interact. WWF-Canada values the trust of our donors and supporters and recognizes that maintaining this trust requires that we be accountable and transparent in how we treat the information shared with us.

In our quest to increase environmental awareness and action, raise funds for conservation and build a strong constituency, we frequently gather and use personal information. WWF-Canada complies with and, where feasible, endeavours to exceed the legal requirements of Canada's federal Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act. The personal information of our donors and supporters is always held in confidence and any use or disclosure of this information is subject to consent.

Personal Information

Personal information is any information that can be used to distinguish, identify or contact a specific individual. This information can include an individual's name, contact information, social status and family relationships. Exceptions include business-related information and certain publicly available information such as business address, name, title and fax.

Personal information also does not include anonymous or non-personal information (i.e. information that cannot be associated with or tracked back to a specific individual).

What personal information do we collect?

We collect and maintain different types of personal information about individuals with whom we interact which is relevant to administer and manage a supporter-charity relationship.

Donation information such as date of gift, amount of gift, appeal (the campaign you contributed to), name of spouse or partner if it was a joint gift; receipt number.

Financial information such as your payment methods and preferences, billing and banking information (credit card number and expiry date or chequing account transit numbers, whichever payment type you prefer in order to process your donation);

Product and service related information concerning the sale of apparel, books and gifts and other products or services that we provide to you;

Why do we collect personal information?

WWF-Canada collects personal information to further its fundraising, public education and advocacy commitments, as well as to establish, maintain and manage our relationship with you. Certain information is collected to satisfy the requirements of Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).

How do we use personal information?

We will not, without your consent, use your personal information for any purpose other than as described in this privacy policy, except where permitted or required by applicable law or regulatory requirements. We use your personal information in order to administer and manage our relationship, to process donations, to respond to requests for information; to periodically keep you informed and up to date on WWF-Canada’s conservation activities, and provide you with opportunities to support our mission; to communicate to you special announcements or offers and opportunities to lend your voice or take action; and to invite you to participate in surveys or contests.

Sharing of personal information

Third party service providers may be engaged by WWF-Canada to perform a variety of functions, such as to mail our brochures, to process your donation, to fulfill your order or to provide technical services for our website, etc. These third party providers have access to personal information about you, if needed, to perform the functions for which they are retained. However, we direct that those companies may only use such personal information for the purpose of performing their roles and may not use it for any other purpose. In these cases, when information is shared, WWF-Canada requires reasonable assurance that the third parties will protect your information in conformity with our privacy practices. Some of these service providers may be located outside of Canada, in which case personal information shared with them will be subject to the laws of the country to which it is transferred.

That country may have laws that require that personal information be disclosed to government bodies or courts under different circumstances than would WWF-Canada.

On occasion, WWF-Canada may exchange the names of some of our donors with other like-minded charities, unless you have asked us not to. Trading allows us to reach other Canadians who may be interested in supporting the work we do, to raise necessary funds, and to save substantially on fundraising costs. WWF-Canada trades names only after donors have had the opportunity to decline. WWF-Canada will not otherwise share or disclose your personal information except as may be permitted or required by law, or with your express consent.

For more information, please contact a WWF-Canada Donor Relations team member at 1-800-26-PANDA, or write to us at WWF-Canada, Donor Relations, 410-245 Eglinton Avenue East, Toronto, ON, M4P 3J1, or email us at CA-Donors@wwfcanada.org.

Consent

It is important to us that we only collect, use or disclose your personal information where we have your consent to do so.

Typically, we seek your consent at the time that we collect the personal information. In certain circumstances, your consent may be obtained after collection but prior to its use or disclosure. If we plan to use or disclose your personal information for a purpose not previously identified, we will make reasonable efforts to advise you of this purpose before such use or disclosure.

We may collect, use or disclose your personal information without your knowledge or consent where we are permitted or required to do so by applicable legal and regulatory requirements.

Regularly, our donors are given opportunities to choose how often and in what way they wish to hear from us. At any time, our supporters are able to opt out of receiving communication material. Also, our supporters are able to opt out of having their information used or shared for purposes beyond those for which it was collected. To update your preferences, please contact a WWF-Canada Donor Relations team member at 1-800-26-PANDA, or write to us at WWF-Canada, Donor Relations, 410-245 Eglinton Avenue East, Toronto, ON, M4P 3J1, or email us at CA-Donors@wwfcanada.org.
Retention of personal information
We retain personal information about you for as long as is necessary to fulfill the purposes for which the information was collected and to comply with legal record retention requirements.

Access to personal information
You can request to see the personal information that we hold about you. If you want to review, verify or correct your personal information, please contact our Privacy Officer using the contact information set out below. At that time, we will need specific information from you to enable us to search for, and provide you with, the personal information that we hold about you.

Privacy practices
Personal information gathered by WWF-Canada is kept in strict confidence. Safeguards are in place to ensure that the information is not disclosed or shared more widely that is necessary to achieve the purpose for which it was gathered. Access is only given to employees who must use the personal information to perform their job function. Measures are in place to ensure the integrity and accuracy of the information and to prevent its being lost, stolen or prematurely destroyed.

Online Properties and Electronic Commerce

Our online properties are operated by WWF-Canada or third party service providers for the benefit of our donors and those interested in supporting our organization. They are free for use by individual web users. In most cases, no registration is required. Registration is required to establish a profile and maintain an account. Registration is optional when you shop at the WWF-Store. If you choose to register, your billing and shipping addresses get securely stored, so that the next time you shop, your information is made available to you. You can also log on to see the status of your order, and view a history of your previous purchases.

All personal information, such as e-mail addresses and financial information, collected on WWF-Canada's website is knowingly and specifically supplied to us by the website user. Extensive data encryption and password protection is used to transfer and store data.

All financial information, including credit card information is encrypted using Secure Socket Layer (SSL) 128-bit encryption. This means that any data sent from the user's computer to WWF-Canada is completely secure. WWF-Canada does not retain credit card information after the completion of an online transaction.

For website users under 18, please be sure to obtain your parent's or guardian's permission before you send any information about yourself (your name, address, e-mail address, etc.) to us or anyone else over the Internet. WWF-Canada takes all reasonable steps to identify supporters under the age of 18. We use or disclose their personal information to respond to their requests or for administrative purposes only and do not mail them marketing material or solicit funds from them. Our website contains links to other Web sites that may be subject to varying privacy standards. WWF-Canada does not assume any responsibility for the privacy practices, policies and actions of the third parties that operate these Web sites. We encourage parents to get involved with their children's online usage and to be aware of the activities in which they are participating.

Cookies

Like many other websites, we use cookies, which are text files placed on your computer, to better understand how our site is used, to make sure our information and dynamic content are served correctly, and to improve the performance of our site for our users, particularly the way search pages are delivered. WWF-Canada does not use cookies to retain personal information about our users, and we do not sell information about our traffic patterns. Aggregated site usage data may be provided to our sponsors and underwriters.

This website uses Google Analytics to help analyze how users use the site. The tool uses cookies to collect standard Internet log information and visitor behaviour information in an anonymous form. The information generated by the cookie about your use of the website (including your IP address) is transmitted to Google. This information is then used to evaluate visitors’ use of the website and to compile statistical reports on web site activity for WWF.

We will never (and will not allow any third party to) use the statistical analytics tool to track or to collect any personally identifiable information of visitors to our site. Google will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google. Neither we nor Google will link, or seek to link, an IP address with the identity of a computer user. We will not associate any data gathered from this site with any personally identifiable information from any source, unless you explicitly submit that information via a fill-in form on our website.

External links

There are links on the wwf.ca web site that take you to other web sites outside of our service. This privacy policy does not cover the links within this site linking to other websites. We encourage you to read the privacy statements on the other websites you visit. Any links provided to third party web sites outside of wwf.ca are provided solely for your convenience. The operation and content of such third party web sites is beyond our control, and we do not endorse in any manner whatsoever or accept any responsibility for the content or other material that may be contained on such web sites, the use of such web sites, or any products or services advertised on or sold through any such web sites. We will not be liable under any circumstances for any damages whatsoever, direct or indirect, resulting from any use of this web site or any other third party web site linked to this web site, whether or not we are advised of the possibility of such damages.

Privacy Policy Updates

We regularly review our privacy practices to ensure that we are not only complying with Canada's federal privacy legislation, but also exceeding it to protect our supporters and maintain their trust. We may change this policy from time to time to ensure this standard of compliance is met. Changes will be reflected in this posting. Please check this page periodically for changes. Your continued use of our website following the posting of changes to this policy will mean you accept those changes.